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M any people as they grow older begin to see the dark side of things become completely dispirited and lose zest for life Youngsters too being unable to cope with stressful situations in life and pressure of office work often fall victim to depression and begin to look older than their age People often make negative statements like I am finished there is no hope life has become hell for me etc This negative mindset and the habit of worrying are extremely detrimental to one s physical mental and spiritual wellbeing The question is Is it possible to extricate oneself from the quagmire of such negative thoughts in order to lead a happy life Yes definitely Paramhansa Yogananda suggests two potent remedies that could be of great help in eradicating such negative tendencies Studies suggest that smiling has a positive effect on your mood decreases stress levels and even makes everyone around you feel better Through the release of endorphins and by producing white blood cells smiling makes your immune system stronger which in turn contributes to a longer lifespan Above all a good laugh helps in releasing emotions particularly those that have remained suppressed within you for a long time that make you feel as if a huge burden has been lifted from your mind Everything then appears a bit better and you are able to see life from a more positive perspective Paramhansa Yogananda says that a genuine smile that wells up from within spontaneously helps in distributing the cosmic current prana evenly in every cell of the body making you remain cheerfully evenminded and positive even in adverse situations All young people are not necessarily youthful many youngsters these days become jaded prematurely and are devoid of youthful exuberance In contrast many elderly people succeed in retaining their youthful buoyancy despite their advancing age They keep their minds young and maintain a cheerful disposition on a constant basis One study conducted at Yale University showed that people who simply have a positive view on aging have less negative effects whereas those who associate aging with decline in health and wellbeing suffer to a greater degree from the negative effects of aging Thus age of the body has nothing to do with youthfulness It is the state of the mind that imparts youthful ebullience to a person You don t have to adopt a defeatist approach just because you are 75 or 80 Efforts should be made to cauterise the can ts in your brain and you must believe that you have within you the power to accomplish everything you want irrespective of your age Through regular meditation get connected with the Higher Power and vitally recharge every cell of your body To the last day of your life be positive try to be cheerful Even at the very end never entertain the thought I am finished These were the views of Paramhansa Yogananda

FROM FACTORY WORKER TO TYCOON RENOWNED GURU Ahmedabad Apart from being a business tycoon who has established an empire of 650 million Narendra Raval 56 is also a guru for the high and mighty of Africa Raval a native of Maathak in Surendranagar district is known as an expert palmist and astrologer of Kenyan presidents and other African grandees Raval whose companies have business interests in various African countries recently launched his autobiography Guru A Long Walk to Success He says in the book a chance meeting in Nakuru in 1983 with thenKenyan president Daniel Arap Moi started an enduring relationship I shared my interest in palmistry and astrology with His Excellency after which he extended an open invitation to the State House Raval says in the book slated to be launched in India soon Over the years I became a political advisor to Presidents Hon Moi and Hon Kibaki before and during their tenures Thanks to my proximity to President Moi I had the privilege of being associated with many great leaders I have successfully advised presidents of other African countries such as Tanzania and Congo Raval said He said he also counselled the heads of some European nations He said all African countries have their own methods to see the future but his belief in Indian astrology and his accurate predictions made him popular among politicians The autobiography s foreword is written by Kenya s current President Uhuru Kenyatta PM Narendra Modi has also sent a message for the book Raval got his guru moniker due to his early days as a priest in Bhuj He shifted to Kenya in 1982 I ll call it destiny I have never charged for palmistry or astrology he said I started in a steel factory in Kenya Back then my wife and I dreamed of having our own shop BharatYagniktimesgroupcom

I used to define success as being able to produce any result you wanted whether it was a relationship weightloss being a millionaire impacting the culture changing society whatever it might be Lately I39ve redefined success as 39fulfilling your soul39s purpose39Jack Canfield

The time was perfect and so was the evergreen everinspiring resolution that of becoming a millionaire And to help Indians do just that just when the New Year is round the corner was Baskaran Pillai USbased Indian guru with a firstever event in India in which he initiated people into a mantra for attracting prosperity It has had me hooked and I have been chanting it ever since I learnt the technique last Saturday The millionaire yoga intensive with Baba Baskaran Pillai was held at the Iskcon auditorium in the Capital an apt place because Krishna the party god is as comfortable leading a life of prosperity as he is on the battlefield or while diving into pots of butter Krishna s message is to party remain in the flow of maya but not to be ever lost in it

This week Savinder Kaur wife of the late Baba Hardev Singh became the first woman to head the Nirankari sect Meet the other female spiritualists who are holding their own in the godman circuit Anandmurti Gurumaa 50 Ashram in Sonepat Haryana Whether you are poor or rich you can be happy in both conditions if you have a strong and integrated mind If not then you can be a millionaire seeking to be a billionaire with no end to this rut Past Gurpreet Kaur Grover was born in Amritsar to an affluent family which migrated from Gujranwala during Partition and set up a transport business Conventeducated she has a degree in arts Might Counts techies CAs and bankers as bhakts They39re from across faiths Buddhists Christians Sikhs Hindus etc USP Unusual in that she proclaims herself secular and religionless She has simplified messages from the vedas upanishads and the Bhagwad Gita as well as the teachings of Sikh gurus and Sufi mystics like Rumi These teachings are available in the form of CDs DVDs and books iTunes has as many as 50 albums of her Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo 72 author teacher and founder of the Dongyu Gatsal Ling Nunnery in Kangra district in Himachal I have made a vow to attain enlightenment in the female form no matter how many lifetimes it takes Past Born as Diane Perry in the UK At 20 she gave up her job as librarian to move to India After six years of being the only nun among 100 monks at Khamtrul Rinpoche39s monastery she left to spend 12 years in a cave in the Himalayas Firsts One of the first Westerners to be ordained as a Tibetan Buddhist nun In 2008 got the title Jetsunma Reverend Lady from the head of the Drukpa Lineage the 12th Gyalwang Drukpa USP Trying to improve the status of nuns in Buddhism through education Also trying to break down the resistance toward higher ordination for nuns in the Tibetan tradition At the moment they can only be novices Mata Amritanandamayi 63 Ashram in Amritapuri Kerala It39s better to get worn out than rust away Past Born to a family of poor fishermen of Kollam Kerala According to her biography even as a child she would give away food and clothing to the less fortunate which prompted her father to tie her to a tree and beat her She eventually left home to live in the forest By the time she was a young woman the biography says she was performing miracles kissing cobras stopping storms and feeding thousands from a small pot USP She39s earned the moniker 39Hugging Saint39 or HugMa dispensing over 35 million hugs Might Amma39s charity empire is global providing food housing education and medical services in over 40 countries Guru biz Her trust runs numerous schools colleges and hospitals as well as a TV channel Difficult to estimate her wealth but she cut a Rs 100cr cheque for the clean Ganga plan last year Brahma Kumaris Centenarian Dadi Janki is administrative head worldwide Dadi Hirdaya Mohini is additional administrative head Dadi Ratan Mohini is joint administrative head HQ in Mount Abu Always remember that the law of karma acts like an echo Past In October 1937 the Prajapita Brahma Kumaris Ishwariya Vishwa Vidyalaya was formally established A spiritual trust was constituted with a committee of nine young women to administer it When the founder passed away in 1969 the leadership of the community passed on to the members of the original group of young women Today the few surviving leaders mostly in their 80s and 90s continue to guide BKWSU USP Seekers are taught Raja Yoga a form of meditation that focuses on identity as souls as opposed to bodies Centres also offer courses like selfmanagement leadership stress management positive thinking mind management etc Spread With its headquarters at Mt Abu in Rajasthan BKWSU has a presence in 120 countries with over 8 500 Rajyoga centres Tech tonic They have an official YouTube channel and mobile app

The exhaustive varieties of fauna that grow in the Ramgoolam Botanical Gardens present an interesting analogy of human life writes KALPANA SUNDER I am walking through the pages of Lewis Carroll s Alice in Wonderland giant water lilies with leaves with turned up edges as big as a baby s crib or gargantuan platters I am almost tempted to hop scotch on the leaves but I learn from my guide Akher that they can just about take a baby s weight The flowers themselves are surprisingly shortlived just 24 hours or so The leaves have thorns on their undersides to discourage pesky fish from destroying the leaves They blossom with white petals turn purple after a few hours and turn red towards the life s end before they wilt away I am in the district of Pamplemousses in Mauritius named by the Dutch for the sour grapefruits or pomelos that they grew here that is today famous for its lush botanical gardens The Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam Botanical Gardens named after the first prime minister of independent Mauritius is one of the most popular tourist attractions on the island covering more than 62 000 acres a botanist s dream The garden owes a lot to Pierre Poivre a French naturalist who was the royal administrator Botany was his passion and he made all the navigators and explorers bring fruit trees spices attractive plants and palm trees from tropical areas around the world His spice collection was the beginning of Mauritius spice industry They say that Pierre Poivre was a oneman army he even had his wrist destroyed in a battle by a cannon ball jealous horticulturists sabotaged his cultures but his tenacity and determination made this park what it is today The garden is not only ornamental but also utilitarian When the malaria epidemic struck the island hundreds of eucalyptus trees were grown in the nursery so that the disease could be wiped out by drying the marshes The eucalyptus sucked the water out of the marshes and prevented the breeding of mosquitoes It s a moving spiritual experience to walk past ancient baobabs with their succulent trunks exquisite orchids with blue dragonflies flying over my head emerald green geckos cocking their heads behind treetrunks and the soft hum of birdsong in the air Local families are out in the garden some picnicking under the banyan trees others with children feeding the antelope and giant tortoises in enclosures One of the first trees that I see is the kigelia pi ata or the sausage tree very dangerous to walk under it says our guide Akher who has a pronounced funny bone It can kill you considering how much the fruits weigh This is from Dracula land he says pointing to the sinister dark red sap on the bark of a bleeding tree Take a close up photograph and you can use it in a horror movie he quipsThe garden owes a lot to Pierre Poivre a French naturalist who was the royal administrator Botany was his passion and he made all the navigators and explorers bring fruit trees spices attractive plants and palm trees from tropical areas around the world His spice collection was the beginning of Mauritius spice industryI contemplate on the sheer variety in nature If you thought a palm was a palm was a palm think again the garden has over 80 kinds of palm trees from central America Asia Africa and the islands around the Indian Ocean From stubby bottle palms to sealing wax palms elephant foot palms bamboo palms even a hurricane palm because it can withstand cyclones and the rafia palm from Madagascar which grows up to 20 metres tall I walk down a stately Avenue of royal palms with their slender trunks grazing the skies where locals come after their wedding for a photograph There is the palmist palm which yields the famous Millionaire s Salad that I taste at many places on the island Most famous of them all is the talipot palm with fan shaped leaves like an elegant peacock spreading her plumes a drama queen who blossoms after 60 long years with a 50 million flowers only to die after that I rest my tired traveller s feet in a small garden where trees from India and China grow side by side cinnamon tree the Indian almond tree whose red wood is used by carpenters and the royal guava tree I smell the crushed leaves of the camphor plant all balms have this as an important ingredient I see huge fruit bats hanging like enlightened yogis doing asanas upside down on the top branches of the albizia tree The albizia or mimosa tree is called the tree of happiness its flowers and bark are used to relieve anxiety and depression in Chinese medicine The garden seems to be a metaphor for the island itself exotic and multifaceted I see the snakelike flowers of the cannonball tree familiar to me as in India we revere it and call it the Shivalingam tree There are trees for all religions here says Akher There is the Bodhi or the sacred fig tree for Buddhists which all of Hollywood loves he says with a smile It s good to meditate under this tree and the Buddhists believe that the tree heals the sick and can even cause rain For Christians this is the tree he explains pointing to the cross tree with leaves shaped like the crucifix I walk through the green avenues savouring the fragrances in the air watching the tree tops with birds lined up as Akher plucks off a leaf or crushes another discovering ginger cinnamon and even the betel nut It s so quiet that I can hear the vegetation growing around me I muse on the fact that gardening through the seasons keeps us in touch with the cycle of life we see plants each day through our seasons that are thriving dying seeding fruiting healthy or battling with disease Pretty much an analogy of human life I see the fleshy fruit of the nutmeg which they say was used in small bags like amulets during the Plague or Black Death in Europe There is the fish poison tree whose leaves and bark when thrown into the water can stun and intoxicate fish I pause by the pond with graceful pink lotus flowers that have waxy waterproof leaves They live in the water but don t like the water Akher says philosophically splashing some water on the leaves which freeze like perfect globules At the end of Cossigny Avenue is a beautiful marble obelisk with the names of all the people who have contributed in some way to the progress of the garden and the island s flora and fauna On one side is a quote of Bernardin de StPierre a young French military engineer who spent some time on the island and wrote one of the two greatest books about the island I love the quote which says The gift of a useful plant is more precious to me than the discovery of a gold mine and a longer lasting monument than a pyramid For me the visit to the garden meant to hear the heartbeat of the earth and my soul To watch the play of the elements of wind sun water and soil In short to experience the sacred

True renunciation is not becoming a monk or swami living homeless and sleeping on the floor True renunciation can be attained by anyone whether a millionaire parent student politician farmer or engineer It s not what you have or don t have it s your state of consciousness In essence it means that true peace that comes from true renunciation arrives when we understand that nothing is mine Whatever intelligence I have whatever abilities I have whatever family members I have whatever wealth or property I have is the sacred property of God or the Divine I m a caretaker And to use what we have not for selfish purposes but for service to God and service to others is the true principle of renunciation When we have that consciousness we use our wealth in wonderful ways because it s the greatest joy in life for us to see what an incredible difference we can make as an instrument of God s grace with our talents and with our wealth I know people who are both extremely wealthy people who are middle class and people with little material wealth Whatever their circumstance may be they are every bit as renounced as monks because they have that spirit The spirit of charity on a spiritual platform The Gita explains that real wisdom is when we see every living being with equal vision When we love God we naturally love our neighbour as our self as the Bible also tells us DISCLAIMER Views expressed above are the author39s own

The world s biggest elections have shown that life does imitate art in fact the Oscarwinner fairy tale of a slum kid becoming a millionaire may seem pass compared to the saga of the son of a teastall vendor morphing into a Prime Ministerdesignate The Prince too has been eclipsed And the decline of his dream of leading the nation into a new dawn could be a cautionary tale for all of us wannabe dreamers The electoral results have shown what Lawrence of Arabia said that all men dream but not equally There are those who dream by night in the closed recesses of their minds he added These dreamers wake up in the day to find that it was vanity But it is the dreamers of the day who are the most dangerous of men Lawrence warned For they may act on their dreams with open eyes to make them possible NaMo s triumph demonstrates what US President Franklin D Roosevelt said that men are not prisoners of fate but only prisoners of their own minds However as Arjuna emphasises in the Bhagavad Gita unshackling the mind and working hard with no guarantee of results is as hard as saddling the wind Of course it is difficult dunigraham chalam Sri Krishna retorts but not impossible Wags might add this is what separates men from boys Needless to add skilful action has exacting ethical parameters of its own Fortunately the guidelines taken from the Panchatantra are engraved on the lintel of the Parliament building itself That one is mine and the other a stranger is the concept of little minds But to the largehearted the world itself is their family

Wipro boss fresh bequest worth 75 b takes total pledge to 67 of earnings from tech co s sharesBengaluruAzim Premji India s most generous billionaire has announced a fresh bequest to his eponymous philanthropic initiative that boosts his total commitment to 145 lakh crore 21 billion making it one of the five largest private endowments in the world and the biggest in Asia This has cemented the 73yearold billionaire s place alongside the world s most influential philanthropists including Bill Gates George Soros and Warren BuffettOn Wednesday Premji announced that all earnings from approximately 34 shares of India s fourthlargest software services exporter Wipro worth about 52 750 crore 75 billion would be transferred to the endowment that supports the Azim Premji FoundationWith this Premji has committed earnings from 67 of Wipro s shares to the charitable foundation The Premji family and entities controlled by them hold a 7430 stake in the software exporterPremji s largesse has stretched everybody s target said Rohini Nilekani who along with her husband Infosys cofounder Nandan Nilekani has committed half of their wealth to philanthropy It takes a bold mind like Azim Premji to commit so much said Nilekani He will really be able to innovate and find ways to address increasingly complex societal problems in India Premji s announcement comes at a critical moment for Indian philanthropyDonations have DeclinedThe Indian Philanthropy Report released last week by Bain Company estimated that excluding contributions by the Bengalurubased software mogul donations of Rs 10 crore and above have declined 4 in India since 2014 even as the proportion of the ultrarich those with a net worth of over 50 million grew by 12 Premji s grant for the nation matches only what Jamsetji Tata and Dorabji Tata have done from a historical perspective said Amit Chandra managing director Bain Capital Over the last 150 years he stands out remarkably tall for what he has really done in the last 10 years Chandra saidThe educationfocused philanthropic initiative launched by the Wipro chairman over a decade ago is focused on improving the quality of teachers in some of the country s most remote locations and also runs the Azim Premji University in Bengaluru All our activities are scaling up substantially said Anurag Behar chief executive officer of Azim Premji Foundation The important point is that we need funds for eternity The foundation will use the returns from Premji s bequest including dividends to fund all activities as well as new initiatives such as setting up a second university in North IndiaFor starters the university in Bengaluru plans to increase intake of students by five times from the existing 1 500 every year It will increase the field work in the most disadvantaged parts of Uttarakhand Karnataka and Rajasthan to improve quality and equity in education The foundation will also step up funding to other nonprofitsThe initiative to support other nonprofits by providing multiyear grants was started in 2014 and has helped the Premji foundation move beyond education which is its primary focus In the last five years these grants have supported over 150 organisations engaged in a range of domains across IndiaDeval Sanghavi cofounder of Dasra a venture philanthropy fund said The large commitment by Premji will help smaller donors who don t have capacity to do research or build capability create impact by cofunding such initiatives said SanghaviIn recent years more Indian billionaires have stepped up their philanthropic activities Apart from the Nilekanis Biocon founder Kiran MazumdarShaw Symphony Group s Romesh Wadhwani and realty tycoon PNC Menon have pledged part of their wealth to the Gatesinspired Giving Pledge It is hugely inspirational to each and every Indian billionaire millionaire and ordinary Indians Even if we have do not have exceptional amount of wealth I think we have time to give services to give for building a better India said Bain s Chandra

Swami Vivekananda addressed the World Parliament of Religions in Chicago on September 11 thereby inspiring interest worldwide in Indic spirituality His opening words Sisters and brothers of America received a twominute standing ovation from seven thousand people The same year on January 5 Paramhansa Yogananda was born as Mukunda Lal Ghosh Because of the groundwork laid by Vivekananda Yogananda found a receptive audience when he moved to America in 1920 His lecture tours drew large crowds in every major city of America Thousands learned his Kriya Yoga meditation technique The global popularity of meditation and yoga today is perhaps largely due to the groundbreaking efforts of those two great Indian yogi ambassadors Yogananda took the inner teachings of yoga out of ashrams and Himalayan caves and into the homes of people His close disciples included householders and parents musicians and actors scientists and businessmen including his foremost disciple who was a selfmade millionaire Many of his disciples had the deepest experiences of Godrealisation in meditation traditionally available only to a small handful who were able to leave behind all outward responsibilities In this Yogananda was following the urging of Mahavatar Babaji who he said is well aware of the trend of modern times especially of the influence and complexities of Western civilization and realizes the necessity of spreading the selfliberations of yoga equally in the West and in the East With life becoming more complicated and confusing thousands are coming forward to learn his Kriya Yoga teachings not in the Himalayan jungles but in the modern concrete jungles of Delhi Gurgaon Mumbai Bangalore Chennai Pune and more Yogananda taught that the principles and practices of meditation are for everyone and can be integrated into busy modern lifestyles Meditation brings success and creativity into everything that the yogi does Steve Jobs founder of Apple Computer said that he read Yogananda s Autobiography of a Yogi every year and Jobs had requested that hundreds of copies of the book be given out at his funeral Other modern successes who have been inspired by Yogananda include George Harrison of The Beatles the creator of Star Trek TV and movie series and the inventor of the Swype texting app that is on millions of phones besides many others More important than success in one s outward role in life Kriya meditation practices make true Godcommunion and saintliness a realistic goal Swami Kriyananda direct disciple of Yogananda and founder of Ananda Sangha was told by Yogananda that I can take a few young men of the most restless sort and let them practice Kriya for two hours every day in the way I tell them and without question in four or five years I can make saints out of them Practised properly Kriya increases one s concentration energy and control over life force and the heartopening receptivity of grace in the form of divine light and love inner joy expanding calmness the vibration of Aum and more Other benefits include better health development of intuition evergrowing compassion selflessness and inner freedom The seventieth anniversary of the publication of Yogananda s spiritual classic the Autobiography of a Yogi was celebrated recently This book has inspired many people to both worldly success and spiritual greatness Kriya Yoga meditation classes start on Jan 15 in NCR and cities across India Contact 919899267698 or visit anandaindiaorg

During a recent visit to my ancestral village in Bihar I met an extraordinary person Twentyyearold Rinku is physically disabled from waist down the result of a severe polio attack in his childhood Since he can t walk he drags himself to everything In similar conditions most of us would have resigned ourselves to our fate and looked at the family to facilitate our education But when Rinku realised that his infrastructurestarved village didn t have facilities to educate the physically impaired and his family couldn t afford expensive education in a city he chalked out a career plan Burrowing into the books he borrowed from his elder siblings and cousins he set out to educate himself Next he started giving tuitions to kids of the village from KG to matriculation Today he is a much soughtafter tutor in his locality and scores of students visit him to learn at his pucca house he partially funded from his income Rinku is certainly not the only person who has earned a respectful living despite a serious impairment What is with such people who refuse to be pitied and change adversities into opportunities It is not sheer luck It is their refusal to remain chained and survive on charity or somebody s mercy People of courage and conviction understand the value of dignity in labour A famous Hadith of Prophet Muhammad says that the upper hand is superior to the lower hand It simply means that the hand which gives is more respected than the one which receives The giver is more valued than the receiver Once a person visited the Prophet saying he was broke and his family faced starvation The Prophet inquired if he possessed anyting valuable The man said he had just a humble bowl The Prophet fetched the bowl auctioned it and gave half of the money to the man to buy ration for his family and the rest to buy an axe The Prophet told the man to use the axe to cut wood and sell it in the market Thus the man found a profession and became selfreliant Why did the Prophet ask the man to auction his bowl and buy an axe when he could have easily asked one of his many prosperous companions to bail out the man with some monetary help Because the Prophet knew work carries dignity and selfrespect while charity can bring relief temporarily but will remain a source of embarrassment Nothing satisfies a selfrespecting person more than the remuneration however little that may be he earns through hard work A selfrespecting person is happy because he has not compromised his dignity has not bartered away his honour When I met Rinku my respect for him grew not because he is a millionaire or holds an influential post My respect for him grew because he is an inspirational character someone who didn t succumb to the easy route of seeking preferential treatment reservation or charity We need many more Rinkus in this world Email to us at stencounterstimesgroupcom

There is a story in the Mahabharata which I find more edifying enlightening and uplifting than even the Bhagwad Gita Now that the war is over and the Pandavas are reinstated Krishna decides to call it a day and go home to Dwaraka On the way he meets an old acquaintance Utanga a revered Brahmin Krishna alights from the chariot and salutes Utanga who asks him How are you Krishna Do your kin the Pandavas and the Kauravas keep well Krishna was surprised It appears you are not in the swim An earthshaking war took place between the Pandavas and Kauravas the Kauravas all perished and Utanga was enraged Krishna why did you allow this tragedy to take place I will curse you for your lapse Krishna was alarmed Already there are some heavy curses on his head including that ominous one of Gandhari He said Revered Brahmin hear me out first and if you still feel like cursing me go ahead I am Brahmn the worldstuff I divide myself into infinite pairs of opposites acting upon one another and that is how the world happens I am both pairs of opposites at once I am happiness and misery I am gain and loss I am success and failure I am both winner and loser I am the killer and the killed I am the virtuous and also the sinner I am love and hate I am violence and nonviolence I am the hunting and the hunted the preying and the preyed the raping and the raped the criminal and the victim the attacking and the attacked I am the ruling and the ruled the exploiting and the exploited the abusing and the abused I am the millionaire and also the slumdweller I am the Brahmin and I myself am the Chandala the lowliest Utanga said Krishna you opened my eyes of jnana I won t curse you Krishna heaved a sigh of relief For me this is the stabiliser of yoga and jnanaIn the Mahabharata the story of Utanga doesn t end where we left it just now Krishna asks Utanga to ask a boon whatever boon Utanga says the jnana Krishna just imparted him is the greatest boon and he wants no other boon When Krishna pressed him further he casually asked for a simple favour only to please Krishna Krishna if ever I happen to be parched with thirst and couldn t find drinking water anywhere please arrange to send me some water So be it Krishna said and took leave of Utanga A few days on Utanga happened to be parched with thirst and couldn t find drinking water He remembered Krishna and prayed him to send some drinking water Just then a Chandala came by dirty drunk and singing bawdy songs He offered the water in his skin bag which Utanga promptly refused The Chandala went his way singing his bawdy song A while later Krishna appeared crestfallen Utanga asked What s the matter with you Krishna Where is the water Krishna said Revered Brahmin I lost face because of you When you cried for water I asked Indra to supply you some water Why water Indra said I will give him the divine elixir amrit But I will approach him in the guise of a Chandala Is that okay It s okay I said Utanga is a great jnani he won t mind Indra doubted it and I betted on it I lost my bet and now I can t show my face to Indra

else you will never learn from your experiences writes WAYNE DYERYou may be familiar with a popular television show called Who Wants to Be a Millionaire If the contestant answers 15 multiplechoice questions he wins a million dollarsStarting with a 100 question the person in the hot seat answers five questions until reaching the 1 000 levelAt this point the person is guaranteed to leave with somethingThen the questions increase in difficulty If the contestant reaches 32 000 again there is a guarantee of leaving with that amount So there are two crucial levels to attain the 1 000 level which is achieved by answering five relatively simple questions and the 32 000 level which involves five increasingly difficult questions I ve just related details about this TV show to present the idea of the two levels that you must achieve in order to have a chance at the highest milliondollar level of awarenessThe 1 000 level is one in which you learn to leave blame behind If you don t do so you go home with nothing Removing blame means never assigning responsibility to anyone for what you re experiencing Why do this If you take responsibility for having it then at least you have a chance to also take responsibility for removing it or learning from it If you re in some way responsible for that headache or that depressed feeling then you can go to work to remove itIf on the other hand someone or something else is responsible in your mind then you ll have to wait until they change for you to get betterAnd that is unlikely to occurSo at the 1 000 level blame has to go Otherwise you go home with nothing and are unable to participate at the higher levels You must be willing to pass a new test at the second critical level the 32 000 question which is the final obstacle you must face in order to move into the more exalted realm of selfactualization and higher consciousness the milliondollar spiritual levelAt this level you must be willing to send the higher faster energies of love peace joy forgiveness and kindness as your response to whatever comes your way This is the start of the uncrowded extra mile where you have only love to give away Someone says something to you that you find offensive and rather than opting for resentment you are able to depersonalize what you ve just heard and respond with kindnessYou would rather be kind than rightYou have no need to make others wrong or to retaliate when you ve been wrongedYou do this for yourselfThere is a Chinese proverb If you re going to pursue revenge you d better dig two graves Your resentments will destroy youThey are low energies And along the extra mile you ll only meet others who have fully grasped this conceptThe ones who haven t made it to this level are all back with the crowd who went out of the game long ago on an easier question and most are still back there wondering why they keep going home with nothing They continue to blame others for their emptiness First you have to get past blame Then you have to learn to send love to all rather than anger and resentment The story is told of the enlightened master who always responded to outbursts of criticism judgment and ridicule with love kindness and peace One of his devotees asked him how he could possibly be so peaceful in the face of such disparaging invective He said If someone offers you a gift and you do not accept that gift to whom does the gift belong The answer leads you to the extra mileAsk yourself Why would I allow something that belongs to someone else to be a source of my resentment Secrets For Success And Inner Peace Hay House Inc

Deepak Chopra answers readers questions on staying centred and choosing the right guru How can I stop events and people around me especially my parents from shaking my universe In other words how can I stay centred and attain bliss What kind of daily practice should I follow to achieve a state of bliss where I am not affected by happiness or sadness Deepshikha Sen BangaloreI wish I knew your age since this question changes as we get older If you are an adolescent your question may reflect a lack of maturity and a need to be alone without the interference of adults If you are 60 on the other hand the same question may reflect a lifetime of struggling to achieve detachment without success Let me try and give an answer that s general enough to be useful no matter what age you happen to beDetachment is the opposite of attachment and rather than being an attainment on its own it is achieved by examining your attachments What are we attached to Thousands of things from the breakfast we like every day to the desires of the ego to a sense of personal selfworth What makes attachment so difficult to confront is that there is no fixed formula You can t renounce everything It s hard enough to know what to renounce today or what renunciation really means It doesn t mean becoming an emotional zombie If you simply want to be protected from fear and anger the detachment you seek is unrealistic it s a mask for wishful thinking If you want to turn a blind eye to suffering that is also not detachment but indifference Since you mention your parents maybe your idea of detachment means being so cool that nobody can bug you any moreSetting up any idea of detachment is doomed What you need is a process and the purpose of the process is to expand your awareness What keeps us in a state of attachment is narrowness we stick tight to our familiar reactions responses likes and dislikes prejudices and habits For all practical purposes we are attached because we want to be and we want to be because no one has shown us how to have a larger vision and wider boundaries A man with 10 dollars in the world cannot feel as free as a millionaire and pretending that he is a millionaire amounts to a delusion This means that you must find a path that allows you to examine who you are and why you keep holding on to limitations Meditation introspection and selfreflection are all involved There will be success at the end of the path once you learn to connect with your core self which is already unattached In my experience this takes guidance and someone ahead of you on the path to realistically describe what is going on as you move from step to step If you are a teenager this isn t the time of life for you to take such a serious journey for years of selfexploration lie ahead If you are older however you can seek out any number of spiritual outlets Just make sure you find one that tends to your needs and opens up a realistic vision of enlightenment Once you find the right path I congratulate you the adventure of a lifetime is about to begin How can I measure my spiritual quotient How can I know whether I m moving up the ladder or languishing at the bottom of the spiritual pyramid Alok Mishra DelhiThe funny thing is that you could be asking this question for opposite reasons either you consider yourself an overlooked spiritual genius or you think you have gotten nowhere In my experience when a person finds one of those online IQ tests and takes it he wants to be told that he is smarter than others take him to be There are no tests for the spiritual equivalent of an IQ and there is good reason for that The self is multidimensional complex always on the move and entirely invisible It cannot be stopped and examined like an amoeba under the microscope Even experienced travellers on the spiritual path are confused about where they are The old adage about the perfect disciple is Always stumbling but never falling In other words don t measure yourself by how good or bad you feel Don t compare yourself to others Don t be bothered that the spiritual path is unpredictable that s part of its true richness If you can adjust to the spontaneity of life you will be making very fast spiritual progress But if you are haunted by selfdoubt and wonder if you are making progress it is a valid question To answer it you need to break the question down into a list of elements that go into it Am I doubting myself in other areas of my life Do I have a problem with selfworth that is separate from anything spiritual Do I have a vision I deeply care about Am I following my vision Am I overly discouraged when others tell me I am not good enough or successful enough Do I have outside causes for discontent that need attending to such as overwork and excessive stress Have I found suitable friends and fellow seekers who are productive in my spiritual life Does my spiritual practice satisfy me Do I have teachers or counsellors I can trust If I look at myself honestly have I grown since taking up spiritualityOnly after you think long and hard on all of these issues will you know where you stand spiritually This is your own journey not to be compared to anyone else s It s tricky being your own judge since you may exaggerate your strengths or your weaknesses feeling deceptively high or low on any given day Why not take a vacation from judging yourself That s the healthiest thing you can do right nowI m still trying to figure out how to be spiritual without being biased against other faiths Every time I speak to a spiritual guru I find that their views about life and beyond is coloured by their religious beliefs Shruti Saxena MumbaiGood for you Many aspirants in your position want the guru to reinfore their religious prejudices I think you know the answer to your question though Keep looking until you find a teacher who is free of such prejudice It sounds as if you are free of them already so why settle for a teacher who isn t What kind of teacher would they be in the end

The law of Karma What is the law of karma It is the law of cause and effect My guru Sadhu Vaswani referred to it as the law of the seed As you sow so shall you reap You cannot sow thorns and reap apples The law of karma is universal it applies equally to all Every thought word deed emotion feeling and wish are seeds we sow in the field of life In due course the seeds will germinate and grow into trees and yield fruit bitter or sweet which we shall have to eatNo one else can do that for usThere are causes that produce their effect immediately There are other causes that produce their effect after a long time If you overeat it is a cause you have created It produces an immediate effect indigestion There are other causes which take time to produce its effect every seed must yield its fruit This is the law of karma We are told all men are created equal No one can be so foolish as to imagine that there is actual equality of ability or environment or conditions of birth forallWhy in the same family do all children not have equality of ability or intelligence A Sindhi proverb says The mother gives birth to children each brings with himself his destiny Each one brings his own karma Among siblings one might become a millionaire while another struggles to make ends meet Two question arise 1 Is this inequality the result of karma 2 And if so is it fair The answer to both as the sages of India have taught us is in the affirmative You arethe architect of your own destinyYou are the builder of your own life Every thought emotion wish and action creates karma and we have been creating karma for thousands perhaps millions of years If our thoughts emotions and actions are benevolent socalled good karma results If they are malevolent evil or difficult karma is created The good or evil we generate attaches itself to us and remains in our life until we have neutralised it Why our past karmas are kept a secret from us Don t you think it is a great mercy ofGod that our past karmic links are not known to us Else it may be difficult for us to live in the worldHow did bad karma originate Free will gives us the right of choice We can choose between what the Upanishads call preya and shreya Preya is the pleasant the path of pleasure that lures us but leads to our degradation Shreya is the good the path of shreya may at first be difficult to tread but ultimately leads to our wellbeing and spiritual evolution At every step we have a choice Many of us alas choose the easy path the path of pleasure and so keep on multiplying undesirablekarmaIf all that happens today is the result of our past karma is everything predestined No John Oliver Hobbes said Men heap together mistakes of their lives and create a monster they call destiny You are the builder of your fate Therefore be careful especially of you thoughts Every thought is a seed you are sowing in the field of life and what you sow today you will have to reap tomorrow Change your karma and you will change the conditions in which you live And you can change yourkarma by adopting a new pattern of thinking